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Lost, Losing, Waiting, Wanting

Posted Nov 9, 2013
by Aaron Portzline
| 0 comments

The Blue Jackets decided last spring that the young players on the roster were deserving of more playing time and bigger responsibilities, so they swallowed hard and let forward Vinny Prospal and defenseman Adrian Aucoin drift into free agency, perhaps retirement.

Barely one month into the season, it's become obvious those two are missed, as much off the ice and on it. On Friday, Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards -- whose club is off to a 5-10-0 start -- referred to their absence as a "huge hole."

Aucoin has retired and is now player-development coach with the Chicago Blackhawks. (The rich only get richer, right?)

Prospal has not retired. To the contrary, he's in Tampa Bay, Fla., waiting for his cell phone to ring. He recently spent six weeks doing two-a-days with his club in Ceske Budejovice and is said to be in good shape.

Prospal's agent, Ritch Winter, won't publicly comment, but sources told The Dispatch that the Phoenix Coyotes, New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers have all considered signing Prospal.

The Oilers are/were interested in Prospal as a mentor for wayward youngster Nail Yakupov, who has regressed following a bright rookie season. The Coyotes and Rangers have cooled their interest in Prospal since their clubs began playing better after slow starts.

The Blue Jackets are headed in the other direction, of course. They've lost five straight games and are only three points ahead of Buffalo in the NHL basement, and so the decision to let Prospal walk now seems a big mistake.

Not only were the Blue Jackets one of the lowest-scoring clubs in the NHL last season, they were the only club to not bring back their leading scorer (Prospal).

The thinking of Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson and GM Jarmo Kekalainen was wholly justifiable: players like Matt Calvert, Cam Atkinson, Boone Jenner, etc., are ready to push for bigger roles, and it makes little sense to have a 38-year-old player standing in the way, eating those minutes. You wouldn't put Prospal in the bottom six, right?

But the season has not played out so far as they've imagined. Calvert and Jenner are hurt. Atkinson has not produced enough points. Marian Gaborik, expected to have a big season in a UFA year, hasn't shown the speed and burst that makes his game special. It's as if Gaborik's groins have been strapped with restrictor plates.

The loss of Prospal may be even more pronounced in the dressing room.

There's no nice way to say this: Vinny Prospal is not an easy teammate. He might have a heightened sense of his place in the game. He has never won a Stanley Cup, and so his strong opinions -- offered without invitation at times -- can rub players the wrong way.

"I'll say it: Vinny can be an a--hole," one of Prospal's close friends said.

Right now, Brandon Dubinsky is doing the heavy lifting in the dressing room. He's not getting much help, at least from what can be seen on the outside. It Dubinsky who burns the hottest after losses, the player who put aside all possible excuses after Thursday's 4-2 loss to the NY Rangers and said: "We don't work hard enough."

Prospal is the type to call out other players - face to face, not through a public airing -- when they're not working hard enough, either in games or practices. Prospal is not the perfect player - speed has never been an asset -- but few players work harder.

Sources have told The Dispatch that Prospal is so desperate to play that he'd sign for as little as $700,000 (pro-rated). He might even accept less than that, and at his age he's eligible to sign a contract with performance bonuses.

Prospal has avoided playing in Europe to this point, because that would force him to clear NHL waivers after signing with an NHL club. As it stands, he would stick with the club who signs him.

Maybe Prospal's not the answer. Maybe goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky builds off his very good performance on Thursday, the Blue Jackets get healthy, the defensemen become more efficient in their own zone and forwards start to get some bounces.

But right now, there's not one element of the game at which the Blue Jackets are thriving. They've reached a point where they have nothing on which to hang their hats, no foundation on which to build.

The season is still very much salvageable. But it can't wait much longer. After playing the NY Islanders tonight, the Blue Jackets hit the road for most of the rest of November, starting in Washington and Boston.

Last season, the Blue Jackets were motivated by the fear of embarrassment and a strong desire to prove the rest of the world wrong, that they weren't the worst club in the NHL. Their pride was at stake, and the 19-5-5 finish was proof of that motivation.

Since the start of training camp, a different "setting" has been apparent. Last season's finish sent the Blue Jackets into this season with the confidence that they were a pretty good hockey club.

That's a different approach, probably three or four notches away on the dial from last year's setting. The edge has been missing. It was that edge that elevated a moderately talented team to a competitive level.

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